Professor Jan Zalasiewicz, pictured, of Leicester University is the lead author of the study that found around five billion tonnes of plastic has been produced since the Second World War

No part of the planet is free from the growing man-made scourge of plastic waste, a study has revealed.

From the Arctic to the remotest Pacific islands and the deepest oceans, plastic is being deposited in significant quantities.

The total amount of plastic produced since the Second World War is around five billion tonnes and the equivalent of wrapping the planet Earth in clingfilm.

Everywhere is now polluted with remains of modern-day items such as supermarket bags, polystyrene lumps, compact discs, clothing fibres, nylons, water bottles and other forms of plastic products.

They range from microscopic grains to large objects, but they are having a cumulative impact on the earth, the scientific study has shown.

Geologists now believe that plastic – which is slow to biodegrade – is becoming so ingrained into the earth and sea bed that it could be viewed as a 'marker' for a new geological 'epoch' on our planet.

Professor Jan Zalasiewicz of Leicester University is the lead author of the new study published in the journal Anthropocene. He said the results came as a 'real surprise.'

Plastic has only been in existence for around 70 years, but scientific evidence is only now been found to show how far it has travelled around the Earth.

He said: 'It turns out not just to have floated across the oceans but has sunk to the deepest parts of sea floor. This is not a sign that our planet is in a healthy condition either.'

Zalasiewicz said 'there's a lot of it in the sea' and plastic 'does drift up on most beaches of the world as well as sinking to the sea floor.'

The pieces of plastic can travel thousands of miles across the sea and eventually become buried as sediment in the sea bed to be 'fossilised' and act as a 'geological marker.'

Plastic waste is found all over the Earth, including this plastic bag pictured among coral in Egypt

The research at the University of Leicester found wildlife is adapting to plastic waste in their habitats

Studies that have involved catching fish in the sea, opening them open and studying their contents, have proved the extraordinary degree to which fish have been polluted with plastic.

Zalasiewicz said 'a lot of them' do contain plastic, although it depends on the species of fish and where they eat. Adding: 'It is becoming increasingly clear that a lot of plankton and fish do consume plastic. Essentially they look at plastic as a tiny bit of shiny food.'

As plastics are a relatively new product the damage of it on fish is yet to be properly established, he said.

Microplastics, particularly Rayon (a manufactured fibre used in clothing), have even turned up in significant quantities in Arctic ice.

The research also found examples of how wildlife has adapted to the spread of plastic. On the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean hermit crabs have taken to using plastic bottles as homes.

Other more negative examples are seabirds and turtles becoming entangled in plastic and plastic bags in particular and drown or choke to death.

The Daily Mail's successful 'Banish the Bags' campaign has highlighted the environmental damage caused by plastic bags and led to the 5p charge for plastic bags being introduced, mostly recently in England in October last year.

The Daily Mail successfully campaigned to bring in a 5p charge for plastic bags to fight environmental damage

The scientific paper, The Geological Cycle of Plastics and Their Use as a Stratigraphic Indicator of the Anthropocene, shows how the scale of the problem is growing annually.

Around 300 million tonnes is currently produced annually and by the end of the century the 'impact will be colossal,' he said.

'Clearly it's having an environmental effect and it is a growing problem,' said the professor.

Zalasiewicz is Chairman of a group of international geologists considering the issue of whether human activity has tipped the planet into a new geological age – called the Anthropocene.

For the last 12,000 years since the ice receded we have been in the Holocene epoch (a smaller period of time than an era) and that may now be ending as humans are altering the Earth's geology.

A preliminary report by the experts is expected to be published in August, although the debate will continue for years.

As the report concludes: 'Plastics are already present in sufficient numbers to be considered as one of the most important types of 'technofossil' that will form a permanent record of human presence on Earth.'